The Barnes Foundation Brings Together Paul Cézanne's Most Dynamic Still Lifes

The story goes that in the mid-1860s, Paul Cézanne, a brash, unkempt, luckless painter from Aix-en-Provence, roamed the outskirts of Paris searching for inspiration in the surrounding country landscape. Many of the paintings created after these treks would be left behind in the heath—cruel reminders that the salons of Paris had no interest in his vision. Yet a year after his death in 1907, this same artist would be heralded as revolutionary, if not controversial, following a posthumous retrospective held in two rooms of the Grand Palais.

Still Life with Fruit and Glass of Wine, 1877–79

This summer, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia returns to many of these once-ignored works in a landmark exhibition of Cézanne’s still lifes. Through 21 paintings, several from private collections that are rarely exhibited in public, “The World Is an Apple” will span the artist’s career, including pieces such as Sugar Bowl, Pears and Blue Cup (1866), Apples and Cakes (1877), Still Life with Fruit and Glass of Wine (1877–79), and Three Skulls (1900). Each of these seemingly simple vignettes is beautifully nuanced in texture and hue, reflecting why the artist is considered a true pioneer of his craft, influencing great talents of subsequent generations, including Picasso, who once declared Cézanne to be his “one and only master.”